Wendy P. McCaw has been firing threatening legal letters, if not actual writs, at citizens of Santa Barbara, Ca. and some former employees of her Press-Democrat newspaper who have issues with her stewardship of that title.

An excerpt from the NYT story:

The story opens with Eric Zahm, a hairdresser who hung a sign criticizing McCaw for not recognizing a union certification vote by her employees.

Within days, Mr. Zahm got a letter from a lawyer for Mrs. McCaw, warning him that the sign — which read, “McCaw Obey the Law” — could get him sued for defamation.

“It freaked me out a little bit,” Mr. Zahm said.

After consulting a lawyer, he took the bright orange sign down from the window and instead hung it on the ceiling above the sinks, where clients can now see it while getting their hair washed. As for the cease-and-desist letter, Mr. Zahm enlarged it, laminated it and hung it in his window.

Since a full-blown war erupted last July between Mrs. McCaw, a local billionaire, and the staff of her newsroom over protests that she was meddling in news decisions, the hostilities have only spread in this upscale and usually peaceable seaside town.

In September, reporters for The News-Press voted to be represented by a union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, but Mrs. McCaw rejected the result.

Circulation has fallen by 5 percent in the last six months, according to the paper. Merchants and residents have taken sides — mostly against Mrs. McCaw. City elders have made many offers to meet with Mrs. McCaw to discuss the turmoil at the paper, amid concerns that she has damaged its credibility, but she has rejected the overtures.

The newsroom’s union vote was the subject of a hearing of the National Labor Relations Board last week to consider management’s claims that the vote was tainted by union intimidation. (A ruling is expected by the end of the month). And by late last week, several angry residents had embarked on a petition drive to get Mrs. McCaw to sell the paper.

In response, she has started a flurry of legal actions against figures large and small, making herself into the local bogeyman whose every move seems to lend more fodder to anti-McCaw blogs, while doing little to steer the paper into calmer waters.

Lawyers for Mrs. McCaw have sent cease-and-desist letters to at least a half-dozen shop owners who posted the “Obey the Law” sign. They have also started legal action against the paper’s former editor, Jerry Roberts; a local alternative weekly, The Independent, which Mrs. McCaw said obtained copies of two unpublished News-Press articles; and Susan Paterno, a reporter who wrote an article about the conflict in The American Journalism Review.